Cantus in Choro
A G LO B A L VIEW OF CHORAL SINGING
W hen aspiring young singers consider
formal musical training, they might look
to a college specialising in music or to the music
department of a large university, where academic
research, performance and music-education could
be united; though the sine qua non for many still
remains the conservatoire or Hochschule, those
hallmarks of musical excellence from Naples to
Paris, Moscow to London and on to New York.
But as we now know them – though tend to forget –
these conservatories are largely a 19th-century
invention, designed in an era obsessed with the
child protégé, whose principal raison d’être was the
fostering of solo as well as rank-and-file talent for
the burgeoning orchestras and opera houses at the
A high-level option
Choir & Organ November/December 2006
The Schola Cantorum performs
with Yale Collegium Players
All photos courtesy of Yale institute of Sacred Music
mainstay of European musical life a century ago.
But neither then nor until very recently was there
a serious alternative for the professional non-
Malcolm Bruno visits
Yale University to find
operatic singer.
Established in 2004, Yale University’s Schola out about its new
Cantorum is in many ways the template degree
programme for a singer seeking a high-level option Schola Cantorum
to the traditional conservatoire course. I was
delighted, therefore, to be invited recently by its
director, Simon Carrington, to experience the fruits
of his two years’ hard labour. ‘I was teaching at
New England Conservatory in Boston,’ he explains,
‘when I received a letter from the Yale Institute of
Sacred Music announcing its intent to establish a
new chamber choir specialising in music before
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‘For a young aspiring professional
the competition for this incredible
opportunity increases each year’
1750 and after 1900 and asking for suggestions of
someone to develop such a choir as professor of
choral conducting. I threw my own hat into the
ring and after surviving the extended search process
was amazed to find myself at Yale! I had also long
dreamt of establishing a graduate programme for
singers drawn more to early music, oratorio, art
song and ensemble singing than to traditional
opera training.’
Soon the Institute would launch its first-rate
alternative to the normal course of study. For Yale,
I learnt from current Institute director Martin Jean,
was in a unique position to create such a
programme. With a School of Divinity and a
School of Music, along with its Institute of Sacred
Music bridging both faculties, it could easily
arrange interdisciplinary courses of study for
musicians particularly interested in liturgy, or
sacred or choral music generally. ‘My colleague
medievalist Margot Fassler – my predecessor as
director of the ISM – proposed, following a major
endowment, that we use the opportunity of a
second choral professorship to offer a comple-
mentary but distinct option for students not
seeking the traditional “choral conducting” course.
She saw that though many American universities
have departments of “choral activities” which have
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produced able choirs and choir directors, there was
no institution which placed an emphasis on the
choral chamber ensemble.’
Of course, in Europe as well there are few places
for a talented solo singer to turn where opera is not
the goal of his or her training, or more importantly
the teacher’s motivation. And this was confirmed
by Carrington’s experience: ‘One tends to forget
that though early music has flourished in northern
European and certain universities in America over
the past 30 years, this has been essentially as an
activity focused on pre-19th-century instruments.’
The structure of the Yale Schola Cantorum is
unique in America (and quite possibly Europe as
well). Its eight ‘scholars’, divided into two SATB
quartets, are admitted as single foursomes each year
to begin the two-year MA. Their staggered entry
enables a seamless continuity of eight solo scholars
year after year. All are endowed on a full scholarship
to the University for the two years to complete their
degree. Of course, for a young aspiring professional
the competition for this incredible opportunity
increases each year.
In addition to the double quartet there are 16
further singers (four more quartets) drawn from
different divisions of the university. Again, this is
competitive, as a stipend is paid based on a full
Choir & Organ November/December 2006
hourly professional rate for five hours’ weekly
rehearsal. The full Schola – what Carrington
describes as the ‘best sight-reading student choir
I have had the pleasure to conduct in the US’ – has
three major concerts each semester along with
additional performances by the eight scholars
alone. The Schola concerts on campus include work
with Carrington, but also with prestigious guests.
In these first two years James MacMillan, Sir David
Willcocks, Sir Neville Marriner and Graham
O’Reilly have conducted, with Helmuth Rilling in
the wings for 2007. In addition there are tours in
the US and abroad (so far England and Hungary).
Last year the American tenor James Taylor
returned from a 15-year residence in Germany to
take up the position as professor of vocal studies in
the ISM with specific association to the eight
scholars. What could have motivated him to return
from a flourishing career in Europe? ‘Of course, I
continue with my own solo work. But this is an
unequalled opportunity for a professor and student
alike: I not only teach vocal technique to eight very
fine singers, I share with them as well a much
larger view of music, especially available to a singer
who has been active in Europe, encompassing
everything from very early repertory to recent
works. And it’s a delight to be collaborating in this
role with the American singer Judith Malafronte,
who also has a major career of her own. Roughly,
she covers the earliest repertory up to the early 17th
century, and I take over from there to the present, touching the end of the 17th century, whereas the
with a concentration on the Baroque and early main sacred works really end with Mozart and
Classical as well as 20th-century.’ Haydn, the relatively few major 19th-century
It is irresistible not to ask James if absolutely no oratorios being concert works. This means a
opera is covered in the course. ‘Well, of course, there considerable task for the singer dedicated to
is Monteverdi and Handel within the early Baroque, informed performances of oratorio and earlier
leading on directly from the frottole or cantigas that sacred music, who must traverse a huge stylistic
singers work on with Judith. But yes, I include some domain from before Machaut to beyond Mozart.’
later opera in the music we cover, because it is The Schola menu for 2007 handsomely reflects a
important from a practical point that every singer good deal of this time-span: Grand Motets of Henry
should have at one stage sung a Mozart aria – not Dumont, coupled with Charpentier (including his
only to experience the exquisite sense of drama in Passion Le reniement de St Pierre); a major Bach
his music that, for example, the Requiem must also programme with Helmuth Rilling; more Passion
have; but also, especially in Europe where many music by Buxtehude (the Membra Jesu Nostri);
American singers end up, there are many more southern European early Baroque (Monteverdi and
major smaller opera houses, where singers without Guerrero); and a commission from Tarik O’Regan
voices of Wagnerian proportion are welcome.’ for the American Choral Directors Association,
The scope of the Schola’s projected repertoire is preceded by Brahms motets and the US premiere of
unapologetically vast. ‘Whereas a violinist has a James MacMillan’s Laudi alla Vergine Maria,
repertory spanning maybe 250 years, the singer has originally commissioned by the Netherlands
potentially 1,000 at his or her disposal,’ explains my Chamber Choir and Winchester Cathedral and
next interviewee Markus Rathey, a Bach scholar (appropriately for the Schola) scored for an octet of
from Leipzig and one of the principal lecturers for soloists and chamber choir. And lest one imagine, by
ISM students. ‘And there are inherently many more the way, that the earlier Baroque fare in this list
complex musicological issues for non-operatic would suffer the distortion of accompaniment on left Yale students enrolled in
the new two-year MA course,
singers. Operatic core repertory is essentially modern instruments, Carrington’s entrepreneurial above entrepreuneurial
confined to the near-recent musical past, just skills have again not failed. In collaboration with the professor Simon Carrington

Choir & Organ November/December 2006 29

 ‘A goal of the Schola programme must be to produce
not Helden-tenors but world-class Evangelists’

outstanding American Baroque violinist Robert reason why I can’t do both.’ And, as I soon
Mealy, who is professor at Harvard and leads the discovered, her presence in a recent Yale recording
major period ensembles in Boston and New York, of Pierrot Lunaire is simply stunning.
the Yale Collegium Players has been established Mellissa’s colleague Derek Chester has,
uniting professional players from those same cities meanwhile, also just completed the first biennial
with as many able young Baroque players as possible degree. Though still in his mid-20s, the beauty and
from the Yale campus. natural ease with which he took the Evangelist’s role
The next stop in my Yale tour is to meet two of under James Taylor’s expert tutelage in the same
the four ‘scholars’. Soprano Mellissa Hughes is from St John Passion performances has landed him not
the first intake in 2004, and her achievement is only accolades from discerning audiences at Yale
certainly a fulfilment of the Schola’s aspirations. and in New York, but a Fulbright Scholarship to
‘I was an undergraduate at Westminster Choir study in Germany with Christoph Pregardien. In
College in Princeton,’ she explains, ‘where I became the words of Martin Jean again, ‘a goal of the Schola
very interested in early music – in polyphony and programme must be to produce not Helden-tenors
liturgy, but also in the Baroque and later repertoire. but world-class Evangelists, with not only first-rate
My voice is suited to many very different styles and vocal and stylistic preparation but a thorough
techniques and I had no desire after my first degree background in Lutheran pietism along with the
to be pushed blindly into graduate training along unique story-telling skills Bach’s work demands.’
the traditional grand-opera route.’ So Mellissa has Amazingly, even a European ear would not have
taken the opportunity during her two years at guessed that Derek hails from Nicholson, Georgia!
Yale to explore many musical inclinations, what Looking finally over this whole enterprise, one
she describes with a glint in her eye as a ‘choose- cannot but help reflect back more than half a
your-own-adventure degree’. Earlier this year her century to Paul Hindemith, one of the seminal
consummate and stylish performances of the composers of his time and a major musical
soprano solos in Bach’s St John Passion resulted in presence in the history of Yale. It was his passion for
the immediate offer of major solo Baroque work in polyphony that led to his founding Yale’s Collegium
New York. Though delighted, she remains equally Musicum. Though amateur by today’s sophisti-
passionate about the most difficult 20th-century cation, it would plant the seed for what has
above
Yale’s Schola Cantorum would canon. ‘I love Bach, but I love the Second Viennese blossomed without equal in the past few years –
have made Hindemith proud School as well, especially Schoenberg. There’s no more than he could have dreamt. ❑

Choir & Organ is published bi-monthly by the Orpheus portfolio at Newsquest Specialist Media Ltd. Copyright © 2006 Newsquest Specialist Media Ltd, 30 Cannon Street, London EC4M 6YJ, England, UK.

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